


It’s (Not) Complicated

by andygreen



Category: New Amsterdam (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M, Not Canon Compliant, don’t tell me because i know they won’t happen for fifty more seasons, i’m not caught up, this is how it goes right?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 16:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20138728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andygreen/pseuds/andygreen
Summary: Helen Sharpe and Max Goodwin are dancing around each other. Helen runs out of patience. Max is in Full Hospital Director Mode.





	It’s (Not) Complicated

Doctor Helen Sharpe is in love with Doctor Max Goodwin.

Doctor Max Goodwin is in love with Doctor Helen Sharpe.

It really isn’t that simple. It’s not simple at all, actually. There is absolutely nothing simple about any of it.

“He’s my coworker and my boss! And my friend! That would be utterly unprofessional, I would be crossing a line, Bloom! Do you not understand how horrible that would be? He’s just made me his deputy director, I cannot make work awkward now by telling him some feelings you believe I have!” Helen had responded to Lauren one night on their way from the hospital out to their cars. Lauren had clued into Helen’s crush weeks ago but finally snapped when Helen mentioned a date with a doctor who specialized in clinical trials and progressive cancer research. To Lauren, all she heard was Helen throwing away her future with her soulmate — her words — for some man she barely knows.

The conversation between Floyd and Max was not your typical girl chat moment but it was as close as those two would ever get to a high school crush style chat about one of their feelings.

“What’s going on between you and Sharpe?” Floyd had asked Max in the elevator, right after he witnessed Doctor Sharpe pass off a file with her hand lingering on his arm for three seconds longer than normal. Max could do nothing but shoot a clueless look turned don’t-ask glare to the surgeon. Floyd’s reaction of laughing and stating he “knew it” was, unsurprisingly, met with a friendly punch to the arm; one that Floyd had the decency to rub and make a sound of pain, exaggerated but it made Max smile so it was well worth it. If anyone said anything, Max would deny it all or stay silent, his ex-wife just left not more than a few days before he started his new job at New Amsterdam. He began to think that he was too career oriented for a romantic relationship and to begin dating after his divorce with his second-in-command was probably not the best idea.

To hell with bad ideas.

Doctor Goodwin just risked his life, repeatedly, by insisting on bringing the hospital to patients stranded by the snowstorm. The worst snowstorm in… well, really, only Iggy knows how long. It’s admirable, very admirable and very risky and could have turned out very differently so Helen really, really needs to talk to Max.

When Max slides down the wall to sit down just beyond the main doors, Helen can’t stop herself from crouching down in front of him and telling him, in a voice laced with desperation, “we need to talk.”

Her exasperated sigh when the power shuts off and the emergency lights don’t immediately turn on is ignored by Doctor Goodwin, who is already pushing off the wall to jump into the action before the chaos can even begin. Helen stands up with him, shuts her eyes and lets her head fall into her hand for a few seconds while she wonders why they can’t get a two minute break. After trekking through feet of snow to save a self-proclaimed psychic woman who believed she was meant to die that night and trekking back to the hospital for better equipment and trekking back to the apartment and then back to the hospital, they deserved a few minutes of peace to rest and catch their breaths.

“Max—“ Helen tried, reaching out to wrap her hand around his forearm, now without a jacket, and stop him from walking away again.

“The emergency lights should have kicked on already. The power is still out, we have patients in the I.C.U. that depend on—“

“Max!” Helen repeated, more firmly this time, to effectively cut Doctor Goodwin off from his beginning director planning. He shook her hand off of his arm and began walking again, ushering people inside and offering words of reassurance and comfort. Helen threw her arms up with a frustrated sigh before yelling after him, “I’m in love with you, Max Goodwin!”

She expected him to stop. Expected him to come back to her, to give her a minute of his time and attention, to talk to her. She didn’t expect him to keep walking away or talking to other people.

“I’m in love with you, too. Now keep up!” Max yelled back to her, looking over his shoulder to her and motioning with his hand for her to follow him. Helen smiled brightly and took a few quick steps to catch up to him, beginning to walk faster to keep up with his larger and fast paced strides. She hadn’t even fallen into step with him before he began telling his deputy of his plan to work on getting the power back on and what they could do if it wouldn’t turn on.

It was already back to business as usual. It really wasn’t complicated, not like they thought. The words flowed easily between them and they went about their lives as normal. They really should have said something much sooner, they could have been together for weeks or months even.

Doctor Helen Sharpe is in love with Doctor Max Goodwin.

Doctor Max Goodwin is in love with Doctor Helen Sharpe.

It really is that simple.


End file.
